Tuesday, August 27, 2013

El barrio de los acotaos

Bubbly one of my cats went missing about a week ago.


He does tend to wander off a bit, but is a very friendly cat and loves everyone so I wasn't too concerned, but as the days passed and no sign I asked Danilo and Hector to investigate. Later that day we sat down for lunch and I asked if they had any news.
"Yes," said Hector, "He is in Barrio de los Acotaos."
A barrio is a neighbourhood and most towns have several, with names like Barrio Lindo (Pretty neighbourhood), Barrio Duarte - named after one of the founding fathers and they can also have what are to us strange names such as Barrio los Chicharrones which is Pork Scratchings neighbourhood.
I am well used to odd place names, so I said without really thinking what it meant,
"Where is Barrio de los Acotaos?"
"Over there," said Hector, waving his arm in the general direction of the wood.
"Well, he will be home soon," I said confidently.
"Err, I don't think so," interrupted Danilo. "No one returns from Barrio del los Acotaos".
"Why on earth not?" I asked. "Well, I will just go and get him then. Now where exactly is it?"

There was silence, and then I thought about the name. Acotao was probably really acostado which means sleeping, laying down - policia acostado are sleeping policemen in the road or speed bumps.

"Bubbly is dead." announced Danilo. "He was playing with some baby chicks in the next campo to us and the owner was not happy about it, so he shot him with a shotgun."

Rest in Peace, Bubbly, in the Barrio de los Acotaos

7 comments:

  1. Oh poor thing, how can anyone shoot a cat because of that? They could just scare him away...

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    1. Rule of the barrio and the campo Sami. Anything that kills chickens gets killed.

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  2. There a lot of dominican are good lookin.

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  3. Even thought I am dominican, it drives me crazy sometimes the disregard for the animals that some have in the island. Not all people but some.

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  4. First time reading this blog thanks for sharing.

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